The four fundamental subspaces

In this lecture we discuss the four fundamental spaces associated with a matrix
and the relations between them.

Four subspaces
Any m by n matrix A determines four subspaces (possibly containing only the
zero vector):
Column space, C ( A)
C ( A) consists of all combinations of the columns of A and is a vector space in
Rm .
Nullspace, N ( A)

This consists of all solutions x of the equation Ax = 0 and lies in Rn .

Row space, C ( A T )
The combinations of the row vectors of A form a subspace of Rn . We equate
this with C ( A T ), the column space of the transpose of A.
Left nullspace, N ( A T )

We call the nullspace of A T the left nullspace of A. This is a subspace of Rm .

Basis and Dimension

Column space
The r pivot columns form a basis for C ( A)
dim C ( A) = r.
Nullspace
The special solutions to Ax = 0 correspond to free variables and form a basis
for N ( A). An m by n matrix has n r free variables:
dim N ( A) = n r.

Row space
We could perform row reduction on A T , but instead we make use of R, the row
reduced echelon form of A.

1 2 3 1
1 0 1 1
I F
A = 1 1 2 1 0 1 1 0 =
=R
0 0
1 2 3 1
0 0 0 0
Although the column spaces of A and R are different, the row space of R is the
same as the row space of A. The rows of R are combinations of the rows of A,
and because reduction is reversible the rows of A are combinations of the rows
of R.
The rst r rows of R are the echelon basis for the row space of A:
dim C ( A T ) = r.
Left nullspace
The matrix A T has m columns. We just saw that r is the rank of A T , so the
number of free columns of A T must be m r:
dim N ( A T ) = m r.
The left nullspace is the collection of vectors y for which A T y = 0. Equiva
lently, y T A = 0; here y and 0 are row vectors. We say left nullspace because
y T is on the left of A in this equation.
To nd a basis for the left nullspace we reduce an augmented version of A:

Amn Imn Rmn Emn .

From this we get the matrix E for which EA = R. (If A is a square, invertible
matrix then E = A1 .) In our example,

1
2 0
1 2 3 1
1 0 1 1
EA = 1 1 0 1 1 2 1 = 0 1 1 0 = R.
1
0 1
1 2 3 1
0 0 0 0
The bottom m r rows of E describe linear dependencies of rows of A, because
the bottom m r rows of R are zero. Here m r = 1 (one zero row in R).
The bottom m r rows of E satisfy the equation y T A = 0 and form a basis
for the left nullspace of A.

New vector space

The collection of all 3 3 matrices forms a vector space; call it M. We can
add matrices and multiply them by scalars and theres a zero matrix (additive
identity). If we ignore the fact that we can multiply matrices by each other,
they behave just like vectors.
Some subspaces of M include:
2

 all upper triangular matrices

all symmetric matrices
D, all diagonal matrices
D is the intersection of the rst two spaces. Its dimension is 3; one basis for D
is:

1 0 0
1 0 0
0 0 0

0 0 0 , 0 3 0 , 0 0 0 .

0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 7

MIT OpenCourseWare
http://ocw.mit.edu

18.06SC Linear Algebra

Fall 2011

For information about citing these materials or our Terms of Use, visit: http://ocw.mit.edu/terms.